Accidental Kiss
by detectivezelda
Summary: What happens when Casey and Derek accidentally kiss after fighting over a remote? New feelings abound and the journey between figuring out just what those feelings really mean take Casey on a roller coaster of denial.
1. Realization

**A/N: Got this idea, thought it was cute, and decided to post it up. Hope you all enjoy it! (: Also if any of you know of any awesome LWD fanfiction I would love to know about it. Perhaps shoot me a PM? **

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"I kissed Derek Venturi," I whispered to myself as I stared at my reflection in the bathroom mirror. Blushing slightly, I touched my lips, feeling so silly as I did so. I was acting like a girl with a crush and I sooo wasn't. At least not on Derek. He's my stepbrother. Who happens to be a really good kiss-gah! I'm not going to think that!

This…whatever all started because _Derek_ had to try and take the tv remote from me. Of course, him doing that led to one of our all out wrestles and, just as I was trying to get from underneath him, that's when it happened. The kiss. In that single instance I knew that what every girl had bragged about had been true to my utter hatred. They were softer than I would have imagined, even though it was only for one quick second. One second that seemed to have the whole world tilt on its axis.

Now I can barely think about Truman without feeling guilty, and I _know_ accidentally kissing your stepbrother isn't cause for it. If said stepbrother even noticed, which it seems he probably hadn't. Maybe I was making too much a big deal out of it, but how could I not? I kissed Derek!

I washed my face, enjoying the coolness of the water against my skin. I wish I could as easily scrub away my betrayal, but alas betrayal wasn't as easy to get rid of as dirt was. Ugh! This never would have happened if he would have just let me have the remote, but _no_ it's always about hockey with him. As if watching the mathlete-athon for one night would have killed him. Bored him? Maybe since this was Derek after all, but he would have survived.

A hard knock against the door forced me back into reality, and I stared at it with wide eyes. Please don't be—

"Casey, come out already would you?" Derek asked. "Some of us have to pee. Badly."

I froze for a short while before moving towards the door. I fumbled with the knob for a second, before I opened the bathroom door roughly just as, lo and behold, Derek was getting ready to knock on it again. I hated that I was now noticing the little things about him, like how his soft brown hair really did make him look adorable as Emily had said once or that-No, Casey stop it. Remember Truman, your boyfriend.

Derek rapped on my head with his knuckles, and I scowled. "De_rek_!"

"It's about time. For a second I thought you had moved in there." He smirked, and I rolled my eyes.

"I'll have you know that some of us enjoy taking the time to make sure we smell good." Did I really just say that? Even my comebacks sounded lame now.

"Are you sure that's why you were in there for hours?" He asked, raising an eyebrow and folding his arms. It hadn't been hours…had it?

"Are you implying there was some other reason?" I asked him with a clipped tone.

He studied me for a second and I did my best not to squirm. Since when do I try not to squirm in front of Derek? It's not like he hasn't seen me at some of my worst moments already. Whatever he thought I was doing for the length of time I was in there was his own problem. "Never mind," I said quickly, before he said something that would only infuriate me. "If you would excuse me."

I bumped into him as I made my way to my bedroom. Stupid fights, stupid accidental kiss, and above all stupid Derek. There was one thing I knew I could do that would get my mind off of the whole dilemma and that was good old-fashioned homework. The best distraction is a good distraction.

I was nearly done with my school assigned distraction when Derek just barged into my room like he owned the place, and decided to make himself comfortable on my bed, all in the span of a few seconds. Basically, enough time to catch me off guard and fluster me beyond belief. Great, just as I kind of, sort of had forgotten about 'the incident'. I was down to thinking about it once every minute instead of once every two seconds, and I was very proud of myself for it.

"You're ruining my life." He said, and threw himself back on my bed. Hello? Weren't those my words here?

"Sure you can lay in my bed Derek. I'm perfectly okay with that," I said sarcastically. He ignored me.

"I just don't get it. First Amy, then Tina, and now Julie." He was mumbling. About what I had no idea, nor did I care. I just needed him out of my room, or at the very least off of my bed where his scent was getting all over everything. 'Cause who wants that? I didn't. Really.

"Are you seriously throwing a pity party in my room right now?" I asked in disbelief. Sure there were times where we got along rather well, but we still had a long way to go before I'd call us best buds, so I had no idea why he was even in my room in the first place.

"How are things between you and Truman?" He asked suddenly.

"Fine," I frowned. "Why?"

"Does he ever get…jealous?"

"I don't give him a reason to be jealous Derek," Liar. I gave him a pretty good reason today, accident or not. "It's all about trust."

He sat up, and propped his head up with his hand. "It seems all of the girls I try to date, sans Sally of course, tend to get jealous. Not to mention they want me to…express myself." He shivered.

"That's the problem then. You can't fear emotion."

"I don't fear emotion, Case. I just see no need for it."

"Everyone doesn't want to have a casual relationship like you do," I said, rolling my eyes.

"See that's just stupid. Why complicate things by getting all serious? What's wrong with a...casual fling? You know, without either party getting needy or jealous because I'm checking out Veronica's butt...amongst other things?" He shot me a look I couldn't decipher.

I sighed. Was this really the guy I had accidentally kissed and was thinking about nearly every second since it happened? Of course it was, unfortunately. "If you really care about someone of course you want them to feel the same way about you. It just makes you feel…special…important." I smiled. "Who wouldn't want that?"

"You know what?" He began, standing up. "I should have known better than to talk to you about this."

"Yeah, maybe you should have," I shrugged off his comment, and turned back to my homework as he left my room closing the door behind him.

Dinnertime eventually rolled around, and I had to reluctantly leave my room, though it wasn't like I was all that safe where I currently was if Derek's rude entry was anything to go by. Everyone was already seated by the time I made it down, and I took my regular seat opposite Derek. Tonight's main course? Cream and chowder soup. I tasted it hesitantly, and smiled when I realized it wasn't tasteless like other dinners tended to be.

"Wow, this is really good." I said. "Who made it?"

"I did," George said, looking smug. "With a bit of help from Josie Daniels anyway."

"Who's that?"

"A chef," my mom chimed up. "George recently bought her book, and decided to actually put it to use."

"Well, I could definitely get used to this," I said, silently thanking Josie for writing the book in the first place.

"Hey guys," Lizzie said excitedly. She was grinning from ear to ear. "You all would be happy to know that I finally got everyone on board with an indoor garden! We start on it next week."

"Way to go Liz!" I said, giving her a high five. "I'm proud of you."

"George!" My mom suddenly exclaimed, appalled. I turned and saw just why she felt that way. Her husband had licked a spoon and stuck it on his nose. Classy? No, but then again I doubt that's what he was trying to achieve.

"What? I'm just having a little fun Nora." He said, smiling at her.

"Daddy looks so silly!" Marti exclaimed, having the time of her life. I smiled just a bit at that.

"I think the term you wanted to use Smarti was 'sillier'." Derek said, snickering a little.

"You would know all about it wouldn't you Derek?" I couldn't help saying.

"Yeah, considering you always look that way. What does Truman see in you again?" He asked smirking at me.

"Doesn't anyone else care that I started an indoor garden at school today?" Lizzie asked, exasperated. I nearly forgot she had spoken before George decided to display a show of…skills…I guess.

"I do Liz," Edwin told her quickly. "Well, just as long as you don't think I'm going to eat any of it once it harvests." He wrinkled his nose.

"But that's the point of the garden. To show that you can have fun making your own vegetables as well as eating them too."

"Nobody has fun eating vegetables."

"I do." I said, shooting my sister a smile.

"You're probably the only exception then. No offense." He shrugged.

"No Edwin, it is very offensive that she would think we'd have fun eating vegetables." Derek said, staring me straight in the eye.

"If you actually tried to eat them, instead of scooting them around your plate to make it seem as if you did, you might feel the same way," I said, ignoring that my heartbeat was picking up a little. That was just from the…thrill of the argument.

"Hello, it was _my_ idea." Lizzie said.

"And it's a great idea Liz. Don't listen to Derek. I'm sure you'll make a big difference in your school."

"Thanks sis." She said, grinning. Derek just rolled his eyes.

"Whatever," He retorted, then he immediately brightened. "Oh and dad can Julie come over for dinner tomorrow night?"

"Um, well," George looked at my mom who shrugged. "Sure that's fine...I guess."

"Thanks." He ate some soup with a smile.

"I thought she was acting too 'needy and jealous'?" I narrowed my eyes, wondering why he wanted to bring her home to daddy so to speak.

"She is, but that doesn't mean that I don't like her."

"You're so fickle. First you don't want a serious relationship and now you do? You can't just string people along on a Derek rollercoaster just because you're attractive."

I had ate some more of my soup, but stopped when I saw everyone staring at me as if I had two heads. "What?" I asked, worried.

"Did you just call me attractive?" Derek asked, looking at me with something close to fear in his eyes. It could also have been just disbelief.

"Did I?" I asked, unsure.

"You totally did," Edwin said, smiling. Darting his eyes between the both of us.

"Well, if I did that's because it's all Emily ever talks about, so while I don't personally feel that way, I'm not blind at seeing that for some incredibly odd reason majority of the females at Thompson High feel that way." I said, quickly damage controlling.

"Right." Derek said, not sounding like he believed me at all.

"So how are things going with you and Truman?" My mom asked. I could tell she did it just for my sake. She never made it a secret that she didn't quite like Truman.

"They're great!" I smiled, probably a little more peppy than the question called for. "He's a perfect gentleman, unlike some people."

"Casey was that a dig at me?" Derek asked, mock surprise, back to his obnoxious self.

"Of course not. You can do no wrong, oh great and wonderful one," I said with all the sarcasm I could muster.

"I knew you would realize it one day," he smiled. "Better a couple of years than never right?"

I snorted. "You are so conceited."

"And attractive. I think that's the part you really like the most." He never dropped my eyes as he ate a spoonful of soup more seductively than he needed to. All of a sudden I could barely breathe.

"Derek that's enough teasing for one night," My mom thankfully said, coming to my rescue. Was it getting a little hot in here or what?

"Sure Nora," He agreed, and to my happiness, turned to look at her too. "Anyway, is there any dessert?"

I excused myself before asked dessert was served. There had to be something seriously wrong with me. I was experiencing symptoms. Love sick symptoms for Derek! I felt lightheaded. Dizzy. Overall, just plain _weird_. This wasn't normal. It would never be normal. I hated him with every fiber of my being. He was the absolute bane of my existence, and I to him. Any other feelings needed to be squashed and terminated immediately, and I knew right then it was time to utilize the dodge and evade method. Afterall, distance makes the heart grow—er not exactly the saying I was going for.

I threw myself on my bed and covered my head with one of my pillows. I'm sure by tomorrow, this whole whatever would be in a thing of the past...I hope.


	2. Consciousness

**A/N: Wow, thanks for the reviews TotallyJorixoXo, bonniereads, GodsMonsters101, and Marie! (If you want your name removed I can, but sometimes I just like thanking my reviewers personally.) I decided to do alternating POVs so this chapter will be Derek's. I feel like it was a good choice, and I really hope you all enjoy this chapter! (:  
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Whenever someone comes to me and says something completely unrealistic, I feel that it's time they enrolled in therapy. Take for instance a girls idea of what a kiss should be like. There's gotta be fireworks, the earth has to shake for good measure, and the sky will most definitely fall. For me? That's never happened. _Ever_. Not even with Sally, and I had something pretty amazing with her for a time there.

Kissing has always been a…perk in my book. Something enjoyable to do, especially if the pair of lips in question happened to be connected to a hot body. That sort of thing would make me a _very_ happy guy indeed.

But I never once in my life believed that kisses could be…life changing. I mean come on it's _kissing_. When I make a bowl of cereal in the morning I don't expect a rainbow with hovering birds flying outside my window, and a cheesy song number like in the commercials. Real life just isn't like that. Which means all you're going to get with every bowl is ninety percent whole oats and ten percent milk. No choir sorry. If you expected something different, you have to make it something different.

And obviously that something different, or someone in this case, was exactly what I was missing in order to find kissing nearly...miraculous.

It's…disturbing to realize that you find kissing Casey McDonald life changing. She had already changed my life once, for the worst, in becoming one of my new stepsisters. I'm sure there are a million reasons why kissing her should have reaped the opposite kind of feeling, such as repulsion for starters. Instead, I felt like I had been zapped by lightning and lived to tell the tale.

To put it bluntly, that slight brush of her lips had been…amazing.

But I'll never tell her that.

Or myself that _ever again_.

I am a master of deception after all.

So if _she_ wants to act like that accident meant something more than nothing, then who would I be not to tease her a little?

Yeah, exactly.

I watched as Casey booked from my presence as soon as I parked my car in the school lot without so much as a goodbye. Honestly, she was acting weird even for her, and it had all started yesterday. Of course I knew why. I was shaken up by the whole affair, er, _incident _myself, but I took the forgive and forget route. She was obviously flustered by the whole thing, and I couldn't help wondering what had to be the biggest question I ever asked since I had The Talk. Why? I mean this seemed a bit much for an accidental kiss, and if anything, all it made me want to do was tease her about it even more. If brushing my lips did this to her, I couldn't help wondering what I could do to push her over the edge. Never mind that I had no idea what kind of edge I was interested in pushing her over. Confused by my own ambitions, I got out of the car and made my way over to Sam once I caught sight of him getting ready to enter the school doors.

"Sam. You. Me. Talking. Now." I said to my best friend, slinging an arm around his shoulders to get him to walk with me as we entered Thompson High. He wasn't surprised, he never was, and the fact that he could handle my spontaneity was one of the few reasons we were so close. Not to mention my selfishness and total arrogance because I was not afraid to admit what I knew to be true.

"Hey, D. What's up?"

I took a deep breath, not really sure what I wanted to talk to him about. "Well, there's this…girl."

"Okay…?" He asked, lost. I was too, since I never instructed my mouth on the course it seemed to settle on.

"And I might have kissed her." Whoa, wait; I thought I had _just_ told myself I wouldn't talk about this. I'm a master of denial, um deception! Totally meant deception.

"You're cheating on Julie?" Sam asked, disappointment in his voice.

"No, no I'm not," I quickly said. "It was an accidental kiss."

"You didn't lead this on in any way?"

"I like that my reputation exceeds me, but no I didn't." I said, as he sat on the stairs leading up to the second floor. Ralph, our other pal, was still nowhere to be seen.

"So what do you want me to do?"

"I don't know. Maybe tell me what I should do," I said, pacing. Now I was having a Casey freak out. Must be contagious. "I think…I may have liked it. A lot." Shut up mouth. Shut. Up.

"Oh, well, maybe you should go to therapy?"

"This is so not the time to throw my own words back at me." I pulled my hands through my hair, not caring what I was doing to it. Chicks would dig me regardless.

"Then what do you want me to say?" He asked, exasperated. "You have Julie, or do you plan on going out with this girl?"

"Never. I don't even like her enough for that." I grimaced. Casey and me? We go together like vanilla and liverwurst. Which is not really the best of combinations. Phenomenal kisses aside. There was also the massive detail that she was my _stepsister_, and that's just eew. Even if the kiss wasn't all that repulsive, and when it came to Casey it'd all boil down to those gosh darn f-feelings, and I definitely didn't have any for her. Really.

"You don't like who enough for what?" Ah, good old Ralph. He took a seat on the stairs next to Sam.

"Derek kissed a girl and he liked it." Sam said, sounding like a schoolyard gossiper. Why? Why are my friends so lame?

"Nice," Ralph said, nodding as he smiled. "Wait, not Julie?"

"No." I said. "Look, it doesn't matter. I'm not even sure why I brought it up." And I really didn't, but it was like I had wanted to share this...whatever...with someone. Heck, I'm sure Casey probably told Emily. That's what friends are for and what not.

"I think I could take a guess." Sam said, smirking at me. I was sure I didn't want to know what he thought. His eyes spoke volumes.

"You know what? I think I ought to get this over to Casey before the bell rings…" I said, changing the subject. I held up her purple English notebook in my hand as proof. I was beginning to feel really uncomfortable for bringing it up at all. Sam knew me far too well. The fact that I wasn't going to pursue a relationship with a girl I didn't mind kissing probably alerted him to who we had been discussing.

"Why do you have it?" Ralph asked.

"Let's just say I have my reasons," I said, meaning that Edwin had successfully completed the mission he had been assigned. I said my goodbyes to my friends and went to look for the one girl who knew exactly how to drive me crazy.

It was actually rather easy to find Casey and Truman, not like they would have been hiding, but I didn't expect to find them as I did. They were standing in the middle of the hall locked in a stare so hot I'm sure a lot of innocent forests somewhere were burning down. And wouldn't it be my civic duty to stop them from killing our supply of oxygen? There's got to be some sort of honor in that.

I tugged on Casey's ear, and she turned annoyed.

"De_rek_!" Or not.

"How's my favorite stepsister?" I asked, throwing an arm around her. "Oh, and hi Truman."

"I'm not your favorite stepsister. Isn't that Lizzie?" She asked, shrugging out of my hold, and moving closer to Truman.

"Yeah, that sounds about right," I said, agreeing with her. "You're just the ugly stepsister nobody ever wanted."

"Hey! Don't talk about my girl like that." Truman said, annoyingly butting in.

"Aww, thanks sweetie," Casey said, smiling at him like he was a deity or something. I frowned slightly. That was going to change. Fast.

"You forgot this," I said, tossing her English notebook at her. She stumbled as she reached to catch it, which meant she wasn't as close to Truman as she was before. Score.

"How did you end up with my notes?" She asked, looking at me suspiciously.

"I may or may not have borrowed it for a bit." I stuck my hands in my pockets. "But your welcome."

"I didn't know it was proper etiquette to thank the jerk who stole your stuff in the first place." Now she was glaring.

"Uh, yeah it is. I didn't have to return it."

She shook her head in disbelief. "Sometimes I really hate you."

"And what about the other half of the time?" I asked, surprised at my own words.

She stared at me with an unreadable expression, her cheeks red, but she was saved from an answer thanks to her beloved boyfriend.

"Man, when you two get into it, you really get into it." He said, smiling, turning to look at the both of us.

"That's because Derek is a selfish and immature human being who acts like he's only in the third grade."

"And you're just…weird."

"Let's go Truman. I would hate to be late for class." She bumped past me for the second time in the course of two days. Not that I'm keeping track or anything. Truman right behind her. Funny, he was more affectionate puppy than boyfriend right then.

I smiled when I caught her eye as she turned to look at me again. She bristled, and quickly turned back around, a blush still on her cheeks. I was definitely going to have a lot of fun with this.

Whatever this was.


End file.
